Further Reading

64-bit Chrome builds for Windows were accompanied by an announcement on the Chromium blog, but no such release accompanied the OS X release. One assumes that the advantages for Mac users are similar to those for Windows users. Google claims that compiler optimizations and newer instruction sets inherent to 64-bit CPUs should improve speed, improved ASLR support and better heap partitioning should improve security, and (when the build goes stable) the browser should suffer from fewer crashes than 32-bit Chrome.

The current stable build of Chrome is version 36, which was released in mid-July. The 64-bit Windows build of Chrome, recently bumped from the Canary channel to the Beta channel, is version 37, while the 64-bit OS X build is version 38. Chrome's six-week release cycle means that, barring some kind of show-stopping bug, 64-bit Chrome should come to the stable Chrome channel for Windows users in early September and to OS X users in mid-October. In the meantime, the work-in-progress Canary Chrome betas are available here. Install them at your own risk.

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.